March 2015

Housing Definitions for Seniors in B.C.

Assisted Living Residences (Registered)

Assisted Living residences offer housing, hospitality services and personal assistance to adults who can live independently but require regular help with daily activities. By law, in order to carry the Assisted Living designation, these residences must be registered with the provincial government. In BC, this is the Assisted Living Registrar's Office.

Accommodation can range from private rooms with lockable doors in a home, to an apartment-style building with private self-contained suites, usually with their own bathrooms and cooking facilities. The residence provides a place where people can eat together and socialize.

“That in turn, according to CMHC, creates a household formation of 30,000 units that we need to have every single year, either in rental values or new ownership. In the lower mainland alone, we have 19,090 new households formed, and it is expected to increase at that rate to 2018.”

The BCREA’s monthly data predicts housing starts to be slightly below 30,000 units in 2015, at 28,700, while residential sales are forecast to increase 1.2 per cent to 84,900 units